Deus Ex Machina
Deus Ex Machina was a Halo 3 Machinima series made by Jon CJG when he was known as DigitalPh33r. The series was popular during its run and became Jon's second most popular series second to Arby 'N The Chief. It is currently discontinued due to the creator's displeasure at the writing, despite being the latter being the main focus of praise. Plot John Brent, a citizen of the remaining Earth city Salvation City, dons an armored suit created by his best friend Michael Jacobs and takes the identity of a superhero named Deus Ex Machina. John creates a reputation for himself after saving a car jacking victim as a vigilante protecting the city. He gets the attention of the criminals operating within the city selling illegal armor premutations and Deus becomes entangled in a series of intense events. John finds a dead body after seeing a panicking citizen run out of the room, its blood used to write a message directing him to go to Island Plaza. There, John is ambushed by mad scientist Leonard Phillips, who knocks him out and traps him in his pet's lair. His pet is the Decapitator, who is named so because of its tendancy to decapitate its victims and take them as trophies. The creature chases after John in the lair, as Michael goes to the island himself to rescue him. John manages to escape with Michael, but the Decapitator and Phillips chase after them. John closes the gate and gets out of the facility just in time as Phillips is killed by his own monster. During Christmas, a criminal named Plague rises from obscurity to public knowledge as he puts a hit out on Deus Ex Machina. The first attempt was a failure, as a hobo unwittingly gets shot instead of John and the sniper commits suicide from risk of ratting Plague out. During the celebration of the upcoming New Year, Derek Owen, a candidate for Mayor of Salvation City, invites Deus to meet him personally. However, once they are out of sight, one of Owen's men injures John, and Owen reveals himself as Plague, and that he knows who John is and that Michael is listening in. As punishment for interfering with his plans, Owen orders his men to bury John alive, stating on live television that John had admitted to killing the hobo and killed himself out of guilt. Owen eventually wins the elections, and his rule starts a time of tyrannical power as rebellions rise to overthrow him. Michael is forced to work for Plague, who threatens to immediately kill the barely alive John if he doesn't comply to create a similar suit of armor for him. While Owen agrees to free John and Michael after the ordeal, he orders one of his men to block John's airpipe with cement. The man, Peter Rowling, attempts to carry out the order, but John frees himself from burial by activating his temporary invincibility and using a grenade to blast himself out. John brutally beats Peter, and kills him by shooting him in the throat and taking his mongoose back to Salvation City. There, John wreaks revenge on Owen's men, killing them one by one. John enters the building by crashing a warthog into it and crashing into Owen. He finds Michael, but before he could save him, Owen had recovered and uses his own suit of armor to blow a devestating punch on Deus that knocks him back several yards before knocking him out. For his interference, Plague executes John by shooting him in the head off the edge of a high building. However, John survives and ends up on a beach. The rebels hoping to topple Owen's regime rescue him and pulls the bullet out of his head, rendering his motor skills ineffectual for a short time before he recovers. A month later, Salvation City has become overrun with illegal augmentations and drugs, rendering it unsafe for everyone living there. John returns and kills most of Owen's men, including his right hand man Phil O'Malley, who he drowns after interrogating him on where Michael is. John gains access into the building, where he encounters the Decapitator once again, who he kills with a propane tank. Deus reaches the top of the building, where he confronts Plague in a final battle before overpowering the tyrant and throwing him off the edge. John recovers Michael, and makes it his mission to find the remnants of Plague's men and bring them to Justice. Later, a Covenant Elite that is host to a mysterious parasite crash lands on Earth, taking over the body of a civilian who kills his friends before he steals their car and makes his way to Salvation City. John meanwhile hunts for Plague's men, and encounters one of the most powerful, the Behemoth. More bloodthirsty than before due to his fight with Plague, John accidently kills a man's son. This causes his reputation to go spiraling downwards as people begin to lose their faith in him and blame him for the young man's death. John resorts to drinking to deal with the pain. He hides on a beach before several passerbys spot him and berate him for killing the kid, before they are attacked by the parasite and hypocritcally begs Deus to help them. John confronts the creature, but it leaves its host and takes over John, who as a result, becomes more euphoric and violent as his armor turns bloodred from the parasite. John goes on a violent rampage hunting for the Behemoth and exhibits an unnatural aggressive nature, going as far as to threaten to kill Michael if he tried to remove the parasite. John also visits the father of the kid he accidently killed, and mercilessly insults him and his son, saying he was better off dead. When the man said John might as well kill him too, he comes to his senses for a moment before deciding to leave the man, claiming he wants him to suffer more. John eventually finds the Behemoth, and hurts him to the point of rendering the man mute. Michael arrives with his own suit, deciding that John has become too dangerous with the parasite on him and they fight. Outside, civilians realize that Deus Ex Machina is inside the building and set it ablaze with molotovs. One of them lands on John, burning the parasite alive as John desperately tries to save it with resistance from Michael. Eventually, John comes to his senses and saves his best friend from being burned alive. John apologizes to the father as the Behemoth is killed by an unknown assailant. Years ago, John is in his university days, uncaring about his future and insults robotics student Patrick Owen, son of future villian Derek Owen. In the present, Mayor Russell Simpson relunctantly agrees to issue for Deus Ex Machina to be killed, as John is attacked by UNSC soldiers looking to kill him. John manages to escape them by turning invisible while they aren't looking. With the citizens and military after him, John believes that he has enough and decides to give up his identity as Deus Ex Machina and Michael, attempting to keep him from danger. Weeks later, John is approached by a mysterious man wearing Recon armor, who tells him that "Doomsday" is coming and that he knows his true identity. He then tells him that he should check up on Michael. John visits Michael'slace, only to find it empty and a tape that says "play me". The video consists of the man from earlier slowly decapitating Michael as John watches in horror while a timer is started by the man and his robotic duplicate of Deus Ex Machina, who the man says will release a deadly virus when the timer ends. As the city enters a total state of chaos, Deus Ex Machina enters depression and visits the graves of his old university friends. The Mayor desperately calls Captain Griffiths, of the UNSC for help in countering the doomsday attack. As all this is happening, the robot Deus Ex Machina heads towards Salvation City. Grifftiths and his men arrive in the city and ready themselves for the robot's attack. However, while they are on Earth, the Covenant take over the Pillar of Autumn II in Earth's orbit, allowing them to begin their attack on Earth without any alerts taking place. John attempts to shoot himself as the robot attacks the city. As he is about to pull the trigger, an emergency broadcast begs the former hero to return. John continues to contempulate suicide. The robot kills civilians and soldiers alike in its attack on Salvation City. All hope seems lost until Deus Ex Machina arrives and tries to run over the duplicate with his Mongoose ATV, but to no avail. The robot steals the vehicle and drives away, but Deus grabs another ATV and chases after the doppelganger. After a crash, the two Deus Ex Machinas engage in a fist fight before driving away again resulting in a another chase. With one minute left on the timer, Deus attempts to stop the robot with any means nessassary. As the timer reachs zero, Deus fails to stop the robot, which suddenly collapses and laughs repeatedly, much to Deus' confusion. Covenant banshees fly above him as John is shocked. The mysterious man suddenly shows up and knocks John out. John later wakes up in front of the man, and angrily asks him why he is doing all of this. The man reveals himself to be Patrick, and explains that the rest is obvious. The robot is a diversion to allow Covenant forces to invade Earth, as Patrick has no way to obtain a sample of the virus the robot was supposedly going to release. Patrick explains that during his status as MIA, he was catpured, tortured, brainwashed, and experimented on by Covenant forces, who wanted him to go down to Earth to weaken its defenses and put his skills with robotics to good use. Wanting to kill humanity personally, Patrick did not create a weapon of mass destruction for the Covenant. Despite John's claims that Patrick will be killed when his use is no longer needed, Patrick does not care, and shoots John in the thigh, sending him falling into a pit. John realizes that the pit looks far too familiar, and is horrified to see two Decapitators charge towards him, ready to kill him. As the UNSC desperately try to fight back, John is forced to fight for his life against the twin Decapitators. Eventually, John manages to hide in a corner, and once again contempulates suicide to spare himself of the Decapitators' wraths as they find him. However, John reconsiders when he finds the creatures still and calm in front of him. He sees several canisters of pheromones and realizes that Leonard Phillips' way of controlling the Decapitators was a synthesized sample of pheromones. John uses the samples in the pit to command the Decapitators to lead him to a way out. They eventually do, and John joyfully rejoices at seeing sunlight again, and goes off to help with the battle against the aliens. Jon CJG has discontinued the series, as he believed that the writing was horrible. However, several renditions of the final act were made by different Machinimators, some of them despicting the return of Plague, the survival of Michael, and the death of John. Characters John Brent The main character of Deus Ex Machina. John Brent and Michael seemingly lived as best friends all their lives. When the crime Salvation City began to grow out of control, Michael put his technological genius to good use and constructed a powerful suit of armor for John to use to bring the crime under control. John assumed the identity "Deus Ex Machina", and became an infamous superhero to defend Salvation City. He fought dangerous foes, such as the monstrous Decapitator, and defeated them all. Deus Ex Machina met his first defeat at the hands of Derek Owen, aka. Plague, the kingpin of crime in Salvation City. He was shot in the head at the end of their first battle and thrown off a high ledge hundreds of feet off the ground. Fortunately, John was found and nursed back to health by civilians who fled the city when Plague took it over. They increased Deus' power by equipping his suit with new armor enhancements. Deus Ex Machina returned to the city one month later and defeated Plague, but was left to deal with the remnants of Plague's henchmen. A while later, during a firefight against the rogue Behemoth, Deus accidentally shot and killed a citizen's son. This nearly destroyed his reputation and made him wanted dead by the people of the city he spent so long protecting. The final blow was struck when he became infected by an alien parasite that transformed him from a caring hero into a cruel and merciless vigilante. He went on a rampage that threatened Salvation City, so Michael, unable to negociate with an intoxicated John, fought him to remove the parasite. John nearly killed him, but was freed from the parasite and managed to overcome the euphoria before he could do so. In the aftermath, Deus Ex Machina was issued a fugitive by the mayor of Salvation City and hunted by the UNSC. This lead Deus Ex Machina, guilt wridden and depressed, to abandon his role as Deus Ex Machina, and Michael, in the hopes of keeping Michael out of danger. Michael Jacobs John Brent's best friend. He appears to have incredible technological engineering skill, so much that even Derek Owen (who captured Michael) complimented his work. Michael and John were known to be best friends since their college years, maybe even since childhood. Michael was the one who designed and built John's power suit. He monitors Deus Ex Machina, providing surveillance and field intel. But despite the fact he doesn't operate out in the field, he still gets into as much danger as Deus Ex Machina. When John was captured by Leonard Phillips at the Island Plaza, Michael was forced to save him on his own. Arriving at the plaza, he snuck into the laboratory, knocked out Phillips and then activated an elevator that allowed Deus Ex Machina to escape death from the clutches of the Decapitator. After John was buried alive by Plague's men, Michael was captured and ordered by Plague himself to construct an even more powerful suit for him to use. In return, John would receive food and water (a false promise), and both would be freed when the project was finished. When Peter Rowling was about to pour concrete down John's airpipe and kill him, John escaped and raced to rescue Michael. After John's violent break in, just as he managed to find Michael, Owen revealed his armor features of Plague, and punched John right through the wall of the warehouse. Plague and O'Malley dragged John to his place of execution, Michael held at gunpoint. Plague offered John one last chance to join him, but John made his choice and refused. Plague had O'Malley take Michael away, then shot Deus Ex Machina. One month later, Michael became silent and barely spoke, but continued to refuse to build Owen a suit, and each time was subject to brutal torture by Behemoth. When John killed Plague, he arrived at Michael's cell and helped him walk out of Owen's building. A week after the ordeal, he had recovered emotionally and physically from the experience. When Deus Ex Machina was pursuing Behemoth, he accidentally killed a man's son, despite Michael's warnings to not fire his gun. Michael let John stay at his place to cope with what he had done, but John instead became a heavy drinker. Michael wanted him to stop, which led to a brutal argument between him and John, and ended with John storming off. When John became intoxicated by the alien parasite, Michael fought him to save him from it, but was nearly killed. After John got caught on fire and the parasite jumped off him, Michael shot and killed the creature. After John became an assassination target, John couldn't cope with everyone wanting him dead, and the guilt of the accidental killing of the young boy. He chose to abandon his role as Deus Ex Machina, afraid the role itself would kill him. He also chose to leave Michael and told him not to contact or trace him, afraid Michael would also become a victim to the Deus Ex Machina manhunt. He was later captured, tortured and murdered by a unknown figure (later revealed to be Patrick Owen, Derek Owen's son) who slowly decapitated him, and recorded the event on video to show it to John Brent as part of his video message commencing "The Doomsday". Derek Owen/Plague The main villain for the first half of the series, Plague is responsible for the spread of genetic augmentation drugs throughout Salvation City. His main goal was to take over Salvation City, as is was, as John Brent stated, the last surviving human settlement on Earth. Five years previous to Deus Ex Machina, during John Brent's university days, Derek Owen had served in the Armed Forces in the Human-Covenant War. He was discharged after he became mentally unfit for duty after surviving a battle against the Covenant. Patrick Owen, his son, dropped out of university and joined the Armed Forces too, after John insulted his father. On the second week, Patrick disappeared. Two days after Patrick was announced MIA (Missing In Action), Derek apparently had a psychological breakdown after hearing the news and disappeared too. During the Mayoral Election, back to present day, Derek Owen hired an assassin to take out Deus Ex Machina, but hit a homeless man instead, and shot himself after Deus cornered him. After the failed hit, Derek requested a secret meeting with Deus Ex Machina. There, he revealed his identity as Plague as well as his knowledge of Deus' actual identity, John Brent. Plague requested that John join him and rule Salvation City by his side. When he refused, Plague had is assistant Phil O'Malley knock him out with an electromagnetic pulse, and then buried him alive. Plague then kidnapped Michael and ordered him to build a MJOLNIR suit more powerful than John's in exchange for John's survival (which was a false promise). Four days later, Deus Ex Machina broke free from his grave and set out to kill Plague for revenge. He defeated a few of Plague's men, and even ran Plague over with a Jeep. Unfortunately, just when Deus was about to rescue Michael, Plague emerged from the rubble in a more powerful form and defeated Deus with one, powerful punch. He asked John one more time to join him, and when he refused again, he shot Deus in the head and let him fall of an extremely high ledge. One month later, Plague had conquered Salvation City. He ordered one of his assistant's (later identified as Behemoth) to torture Michael to force him to build his new power suit. However, Deus Ex Machina didn't die, and returned to Salvation City more powerful than ever thanks to new armor enhancements made by Salvation Rebel technicians. Plague sent all of his available henchmen, and even the Decapitator, after Deus, all of which were killed. Deus confronted Plague at the top of his building. After a short game of cat and mouse, Deus Ex Machina blinded Plague, battered him, and then threw him off the roof of his building, where he plummeted to his death. However, in Metaridleyfan1's version of the final act of the series, he has actually somehow survived the fall and more suprisingly offers a truce between him and Deus to take down Patrick together, the latter being a threat to both. Patrick Owen The son of Derek Owen. He studied Robotics at the University College of Salvation City (UCSC), the same University that John Brent and Michael Jacobs attended. He picked on John Brent for not performing well on his courses. After John had a meeting with Mr. Dennison, Patrick began to pick on him again. Unable to take it, John insulted him by referring to his "Basket-case for a father". Patrick took it extremely heavily. 2 weeks after the incident, John and Michael found out from a fellow student that he dropped out about a week previously and joined the Armed Forces, went MIA (Missing In Action) 2 days ago along with his father, Derek Owen, who heard about Patrick and apparently had a psychological breakdown. John and Michael stood speechless in disbelief at the possibility that John's single insult could have led to these events. The reason he went MIA was that he was captured by Covenant forces. They tortured him, experimented on him and brainwashed him in his time of capture. Then, they sent him back down to Earth to create a weak point in Earth's orbital defense. Patrick saw this as a perfect opportunity to put his gift at robotics "to good use". As he held John responsible for the chain of events that followed (despite that it was all down to Patrick's personal choices), he also took the opportunity for revenge. Patrick built a robot, duplicating the appearance (apart from color), characteristics and physical power of Deus Ex Machina to perform his task the Covenant assigned him for. He had reunited with his father, Derek, but how Patrick was involved with Derek Owen is unknown, but it seems that Patrick had nothing to do with his father's drug running or plans for becoming Mayor. This is the most likely reason Patrick found John Brent, now better known as Salvation Hero turned fugitive, Deus Ex Machina. Discovering John Brent would become involved in the opposition of his plans of terrorism, Patrick Owen planned his revenge within his task. After Deus Ex Machina killed his father and freed Salvation from his corrupt regime, Patrick began the launch of his operation. As a rogue Behemoth was also hunting down Deus Ex Machina, despite that Patrick told Behemoth to leave Deus to him, Patrick killed him. After John Brent gave up being Deus Ex Machina and abandoning Michael, Patrick kidnapped Michael, and recorded his beheading on video. He then uploaded the video to Michael's computer, and programmed it to trigger his Emergency Broadcast Message, the 24 hour countdown, and the deployment of the Robot. Patrick then located a lonely and depressed John, and scared him back to Michael's house. John watched the video, to his horror, and Doomsday began. After the 24 hours, Patrick captured John Brent. He revealed his identity, explained what happened to him when he went MIA and his purpose back on Earth to John. Patrick then shot him in the leg, then threw him down into a underground tunnel resembling the Decapitator's home, and left John to die at the hands of the two Elites. As the Covenant launched their assault on the last of Mankind, Patrick simply stood on a cliff to watch the ensuing slaughter.